On Sunday, February 9, while the world prepared to watch Kendrick Lamar deliver his highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, Akademiks enjoyed a rare “I told you so” moment. He leaked a set-list for the show days earlier, and many people in hip-hop media dismissed it as mere speculation. But when the lights hit the stadium stage, and Kendrick walked through his set, the leaked tracklist almost matched the real deal. Now Akademiks enjoys being right, much to the embarrassment of his critics.
Not long after the show aired, Akademiks hopped on Instagram live and seemingly wasted no time flexing on the haters, calling out a few hip-hop media figures who made fun of his initial report.
This isn’t Akademiks’ first run-in with mainstream hip-hop media. The bold commentator has always cast himself as the face of the Internet generation, willing to take a swing at both traditional press and reporters he thinks are out of touch. His triumph lap after the Super Bowl set-list leak is only the most recent in a line of moments where he has challenged and defeated the establishment.
Though some critics accuse him of being forward and riding waves of clout-chasing behavior to find validity, he was on the marked money this time. And in a media environment where nothing matters more than credibility, accurately predicting a Super Bowl set-list is no small feat.
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